Nunsense is Nonsense But You'll Love it Anyway

Anita Hollander, Susie Speidel and Kristin Bohr

Sometimes there's a disparity between how I feel about a play and how
the rest of the audience feels about it. The Surflight's production of
Dan Goggin's Nunsense is a perfect example. I warmed to the play only
slowly and I can't say it's one of my favorites. But the opening night
crowd went wild and gave it a standing ovation.

My late father used to have an expression. "Is the world out of step
with Johnny or is Johnny out of step with the world?" Unless Johnny is
some kind of genius, it's probably the latter. So why wasn't I as
enthusiastic as the rest of the crowd?

Well, it's not like I disliked the show. It's a sweet and goofy tale of
some nuns at The Little Sisters of Hoboken who put on a talent show to
pay for an unexpected expense. Some vicious vichyssoise killed off a
large number of their sisters and they have buried all but four of
them. They won't be able to remove those last four from the freezer
until they raise the money for proper burials.

My problem was that for me the show was sometimes just a little too
easy on itself. I mean whimsical nuns who say unexpected things? This
concept was old by the time Sidney Poitier starred in Lilies of the
Field in 1963. It's just too ripe--overripe--and all the low hanging
fruit has been picked. Still, the Surflight freshened it up by salting
the script with local and timely references.

And the jokes were sometimes almost unbearably corny. (A nun
ventriloquist dummy named Sister Mary Annette? Arggh!) This show has
more corn than Oklahoma.

So why did the crowd go wild? Hey, there's nothing wrong with whimsy
and corn. Disney built an empire on it. Then there was the innovative
staging. The house lights stay up for the first ten minutes or so of
the play as the nuns mill about the auditorium lobbing punchlines as
they talk to the audience. They continue to involve the audience
throughout the play. And if you're Catholic, as a good portion of the
audience seemed to be, everything is at least twice as funny.

The five woman cast was extraordinary. Susie Speidel, who also directed
and choreographed, has impeccable comic timing as Mother Superior.
Anita Hollander, a one-woman seminar in comparative religion, segues
from playing Golde in Fiddler on the Roof to playing an overeager
second in command as Sister Hubert without missing a beat. Andrea
McCullough is consistently funny as the star struck frustrated
performer Sister Robert Anne. And the endlessly charming Elena
Gutierrez once again stole my heart, this time as the earnest Sister
Mary Leo. Gutierrez's singing voice is relentlessly sweet but I never
tire of hearing it.

But for me, the best part of the show was a young scene stealer named
Kristin Bohr. She plays the bubble headed Sister Mary Amnesia so well
it's uncanny. Her bewildered looks after she delivers an unintended (to
her character) punch line seem utterly unrehearsed. It's as if she
really is that confused, rather than an actress pretending she's
confused. Only her flawless delivery belies her seeming naiveté.

So don't mind my curmudgeonly nitpicking. Even if I think the whimsy
was a bit treacly at times, and I choked on a kernel of corn here and
there, I think you'll find the show thoroughly enjoyable. Go with my
blessing, my child.

Evening performances run through September 13, 2003 at 8:00 p.m. with
matinees on September 10, 13 and 14 at 2 p.m. More information is
available at the Surflight site.